In which Melanie makes a dress

I haven't posted anything in a long time because... well, I had no idea what to post. I write about my family on my family blog, and I have another blog to keep me motivated in losing weight... I should really have more to talk about than just those two things. This blog was supposed to be an outlet so I could have something all my own - and then my mind was blank for a couple months. Well it occurred to me that I've been recently considering starting an Etsy store and so I've spent the last few months playing around in my spare time with different ideas of things I could make. The more I do, the more I want to do - when I haven't done anything crafty for a while sometimes I forget just how much I enjoy it! So I think that will be the new theme of my blog. Feel free to give opinions, suggestions, comments, or requests.

So for my first: a pillowcase dress. I enjoy making lots of different things, but I've never really been a sewer (I've definitely never been a sewer... maybe sew-er? A person who sews. Seamstress.) My mom has sewn all of her own dresses for the majority of my memory, and as a kid she helped me do small sewing projects. These days she is still making her own dresses, has taken up quilting, and she also teaches sewing lessons. My sister Merry is the other one in the family who can really sew. I don't know if she has the time these days but I know that at least when she only had one son she made a lot of his clothes, and I remember that the only way I could tell the difference between hers and the store bought clothes was the tags! Also she makes georgous wedding dresses, I'd just like to brag for her for a moment and point out that she made MY wedding dress of which I am quite fond of, and which got many compliments at my wedding.

So on to me... this is my first real attempt at sewing, and I will hopefully find the time to do more because I had fun making it. I started basic: I made a pillowcase dress for my niece Mattie. Now, I didn't have a pattern and I also didn't have any measurements because Mattie lives in Germany... so my mom helped me make up a pattern, and we just guessed at the measurements. Considering how little we had to work with, I'm pretty happy with the results! Hopefully Mattie and her mom Annie are too!

Alright this is the dress, a standard pillowcase dress ties on both shoulders but I wove the ribbon through so that it would only tie on one side, which I think I like better. Also the ribbon around the bottom was an afterthought, but I quite like it.

This is a closeup of the bow at the bottom, I originally planned on just the stripe of ribbon but a bow would hide the seam of the ribbon, so I came up with this small bow that wouldn't be big and girly.

And of course before I sent it I wanted to try it out on someone to see if the measurements we came up with would be ok - and Matthew is the closest sized model available! Mattie is about a year older than him so hopefully the fit was good! Hopefully I'll get some picture from Annie of Mattie wearing it.